Pain. The world was a starburst of agony and there was nothing else. There was no such thing as time, no past, no future. Only pain. Slowly, I became dimly aware of someone screaming; an appropriate track to accompany the tiny hell that my world had become. It took me a minute to realise that the screaming was me. Not only me, though. There were other voices, male ones. Familiar voices. I blinked furiously but I couldn't make my eyes see. I was terrified, a detached part of my brain realised with some surprise. I was terrified and my heart was racing frantically. With every frenetic beat, warmth blossomed at my stomach. I reached down blindly with clumsy fingers and found wetness there. Blood?

"Hermione!" someone screamed.

That voice, I knew that voice! Fingers brushed my cheek, so gently. The shouting stopped and then there was only tense muttering.

"They shot her," the first voice said, "They shot her with a gun."

A second person chuckled darkly, "Really? I hadn't noticed."

"Shut up, Malfoy."

"Maybe you should try and do something about the bleeding, Weasely."

There was a terrible pressure over the warmth then, and the world flashed white. For another moment, there was just pain again. This time when it ebbed, I found that I could open my eyes. Ron's freckled face stared down at me. Everything was blurred but it looked like he'd been crying. I reached up and patted his cheek.

"S'okay."

He leaned down and kissed me, very carefully. When he withdrew, I tried to sit up a little, to look around but doing so reminded me that I was injured. I looked down at myself.

"They shot me," I said, shell-shocked, "With a gun."

Memories started to return. Ron and I had been walking through the grounds, after the Battle of Hogwarts. We'd run into Malfoy and then… a group of men had come. They hit Ron over the head and he'd fallen like a marionette with cut strings. I had drawn my wand but someone had come up from behind me. My last thought before everything had blacked out was that Malfoy must have done something.

I could see him now though, sitting just behind Ron. There were similar worry-lines on his face. I raised my eyebrows.

"What happened?"

Ron sniffled. Malfoy sighed, uncrossed his arms and jerked his chin towards me.

"You woke up last, just as they were coming down. We're locked in a basement somewhere, I don't know where. You were still kind of groggy when Weasely here got mouthy. They pulled a gun, shot you and went back upstairs."

"Who are they, Death Eaters?"

"How the hell should I know? I'm down here same as you."

I groaned as the pain swelled again.

"How bad am I?" I hissed through my teeth.

"Well, you're still talking. I imagine that's a good thing."

Ron looked very pale, "They shot her in the stomach, how can–"

I forced a smile, "It's okay, Ron."

"I guess it could be, if we get out of here."

Ron nodded, "How do we get her out of here?"

"Do we try? She's become a bit of a liability, really."

I let them argue. Slowly, very slowly, I pushed myself into a sitting position. My wound complained uproariously but I ignored it. Nobody down here was a doctor, we had no wands and I couldn't have it looked at down here. If I wanted help, I needed to figure out a way to get us free. Draco was correct, everything could be okay if only we weren't down here.

The room was very dark. It was small, square, no furniture. There was a boarded up window high up on the far wall. The only way out was the stairs.

That was when a door creaked open from above and the sound of footsteps floated down towards us.